Do you remember the 2000 movie ‘What Women Want” in which an advertising executive played by Mel Gibson develops the ability to read women’s thoughts after an electric shock in the bathtub? I haven’t been struck by a lightning bolt, but I have developed some insight into what motivates clinical researchers in Uganda, both within the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), and at Mulago Hospital... Read More

This week I’ve been benchmarking Centers of Excellence for Research in HIV in Uganda and other African countries to understand the different business models and critical success factors for conducting clinical research. All these centers share a common tripartite mission of patient care, research and training in HIV / AIDS. “No man is an island” said English poet, John Donne, and this is very... Read More

After a month of traveling throughout the eastern portion of Tanzania, I came to a realization about Dar es Salaam that I didn’t have before: The mosquitoes in Dar are not like the mosquitoes in the rural parts of the country.
I never wear bug repellent in Dar, and I didn’t even think to bring any with me on a recent business trip to Moshi. When I arrived in Moshi and tried to sit outside in... Read More

In my first three weeks as a Fellow with the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) I’ve learned six valuable lessons on how to do more with less in a resource limited setting.
1. Collaborate. Partnerships can provide access to external resources, for example Clinic clients are referred to neighboring Mulago hospital for ECGs since the IDI clinic does not have its own machine, and... Read More

The Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) was established to build capacity to treat HIV/AIDS, and over the last ten years much has been accomplished. Now 70% of patients receive antiretroviral therapy (ART)1, and IDI has built capacity beyond its own four walls at its Outreach Clinics both in Greater Kampala and in six districts in Mid-Western Uganda and eight regional referral hospitals.
As the... Read More

Human resources form the basis of any organization. Without people things simply wouldn’t happen. Applying this concept to the health sector, without human resources, there would be no one to provide health care to the sick and vulnerable members of society.... Read More

Working in clinical research, it’s easy to forget sometimes that patients are at the heart of what we do. Not so at the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) in Kampala, Uganda, where the Clinic for HIV patients or ‘Friends’ as they are called here is literally right in the center of the building. As I sit in my office thinking how best to approach my assignment of strategic planning for IDI... Read More

I was at a party of ex-pats in the Sanlitun district of Beijing explaining to an Australian professor teaching at Peking University that Pfizer had loaned me to GBCHealth to create a strategy for a diabetes awareness, prevention, and treatment campaign in China. He asked pointedly, “Wouldn’t it be more productive for Pfizer to take any monies it is paying you and just give it to the NGO for its... Read More

Since my last blog, I have been thrust into the world of the Tanzanian regulations. Meetings with the Tanzanian FDA (TFDA), meeting with local stakeholders of my project work, and coordinating final goals with the home office in Amsterdam have been priority. My project, you say? It is easily explained now that I have completed Phase I fact finding from my objectives. Simply explained, I am... Read More

Habari! (“hello” in Kiswahili) Well, after many intensive weeks of planning and transitioning from my daily work responsibilities to my fellowship objectives, I’ve made the journey from Dublin, Ireland to Nairobi, Kenya. Casting my mind back to late one evening in January this year, I clearly remember nervously opening the confirmation email from the global health fellows program, seeing the... Read More